29 August 2012 By James Roberts

Spanish government moves to improve rental market

The Spanish government is due to introduce new legislation designed to make owning rental properties in the country more attractive to landlords.

Under the measures that were put in front of parliament on Friday (August 24th), landlords will be able to evict non-paying tenants much more quickly.

Currently, Spanish law favours the renter, which means few real estate investors are keen to enter the country's rental market.

Speaking to Bloomberg Businessweek about the proposals, Alexander Pelteshki, an analyst at ING Financial Markets in Amsterdam, said: "With the drop in mortgage lending and the hike in unemployment, rental accommodation in Spain is going to become much more necessary."

The publication cited figures from the nation's Public Works Ministry, which show just 1.8 million properties in Spain are rented, out of 25 million homes.

Investors may be attracted to the south European nation due to the comparatively low house prices available at present, with the latest data from Tinsa revealing residential real estate values dropped by 11.2 per cent year-on-year in July.